Whenever I visit New York City, I always get this feeling of vastness. The knowledge that, all around me, are millions of people living their disparate lives, each with their own unique stories. A woman jogging on the sidewalk. Two men in suits having a conversation at the window of a cafe. A family wandering from store to store, a small child looking wide-eyed at everything around him.
It’s not a feeling I get in other smaller cities—Atlanta, San Francisco, Austin. I might get a feeling of, say, potential and opportunity in San Francisco. But in NYC, it’s more like a feeling of possibilities. There’s millions of people, millions of things to do, and millions of routes and permutations throughout the day. A walk along a different set of blocks to a destination than that of yesterday could yield a new set of people I’d see and potentially meet.
I love that feeling.
There’s a scene from Your Name by Makoto Shinkai (a wonderful Japanese animated film that was a box office smash hit) that I think sums up the vibes here pretty well—including the song that plays at the credits, Nandemonaiya. If you haven’t seen the movie…well, I’m going to spoil a little bit of here.
In this scene, the main characters Mitsuha and Taki walk past each other after the climax of the film. They no longer have any conscious recollection of each other. Taki’s been living in the city, with a strange feeling that something’s missing in his life. He walks past Mitsuha on the elevated walkway at night and has no idea it’s the person he’s been searching for. They almost stop to make conversation, but they decide not to.
It’s a really well designed, pretty setting. Like my experience here in NYC, you also get this feeling of vastness—in this case, the movie is using it as a backdrop to Taki’s search for Mitsuha. On top of that, there’s also this sense of possibility. Taki has been searching for the missing piece of his life for some time now, and the movie teases the viewers with close encounters with Mitsuha.
Like Taki, I also get the feeling that I’m always close to some potentially life-changing encounter in the city. It could be something as simple as a new friend that I get to make or as monumental as a catalyst to some mid-life crisis I have when I’m older. I’ve gotten the opportunity to meet up old and new friends so far this weekend already, and I’ve learned plenty doing so.
On a related but more glib note, I also really dig the sheer variety of bars, restaurants, cafes, structures, and the like in the city. There’s so much to do, to the point where I can’t even come up with a list of things to do like I do in other cities. The volume makes it impossible. So, I just roll with the punches and just pick different things to do as they come. A cool elevated walkway at night. A hole-in-the-wall comedy club. A bar on the main drag in Koreatown. I never really have to put in the effort to look for stimulation. I don’t know if I could ever live here long term, but I enjoy visiting.
A year ago, I’d say that I was searching for purpose—it was pre-Sora launch. Now, as we’re working hard on the company, I’m staying mentally healthy, and things are falling into place in life for me (knock on wood), I find myself searching more for possibility. I want to meet new people, make new friends, and explore. It’s not quite wanderlust (though my trip to NYC might contradict that), but it’s kind of close.
There’s a lot of personal development to do. I know I’m immature in that regard (after all, I’m only 22). But I’m really excited for it.
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General Life Updates
Visiting NYC and wondering why isn’t air conditioning universal here
Actively trying to meet up with new people and cultivate old friendships
Will probably end up moving to near Buford Highway in ATL in a month, so looking forward to good Asian eatins nearby :)
Learned a lot more about Chindos than I ever thought I would
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Recent Medium Articles
None this time, I'm afraid 😢
Hopefully there will be one next time. Check out my Medium in case you want to read some of my past work.
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Cheers,
Indra